Hi All,

I was in Margate on Saturday to see their Ryman Premier League match against Kingstonian. This was a dead rubber for Margate, but Kingstonian were after a win to push them into the play-offs.

No surprise then to see Kingstonian come out of the blocks like greyhounds, and they cruised into a 3-0 lead within the first half an hour. It seemed like they were on a mission, to not only get into the play-offs but also to let the other teams in the play-offs know that they were the team in form and they would be tough to beat. As it turned out, they beat themselves.

Scoring a first before half time really seemed to lift the spirtits of the Margate players, and they came out for the second half a different team. Instead of being off the pace, they now set the pace and it was Kingstonian that were on the backfoot. A second goal just after the restart kept them in dominant mood and it was really just a matter of when they would score the equaliser. In fact I would not have been surprised if they had pushed on and actually won the game. The equaliser did eventually come with 10 minutes to go, and those last 10 minutes were very exciting as both teams pushed for the win.

As it was, it finished 3-3, which blew Kingstonian's chance of the play-offs out of the water and must have left Margate wondering why it took them 30 minutes before they remembered that they could actually play football. I would not like to have been in the Kingstonian dressing room after the match. Alan Dowson must have gone ballistic at his teams ability to shoot themselves in the foot after the brightest start to a game I have ever seen.

I see that Tonbridge & Lowestoft have reached the play-off final. I have not seen Lowestoft this season, but have seen Tonbridge a few times and wish them all the best. As I have mentioned on previous blogs, I believe they are good enough to handle the Blue Square South and deserve their shot. I look forward to seeing them in the BSS next season (fingers crossed).

Thats all for now, dont forget as usual I have more photos from the match on my website, www.kensparksphotography.co.uk. Let me know what you think of them. Made a nice change to be photographing in sunlight !!

Am off to Wembley next Saturday for the FA Trophy Final and will let you know my thoughts from there next week.

Till then, be good. Ken